Issue #17: "The Trigon Empire" Pt. 1

It was after midnight in Titans Tower, and Dagon, as he often did at this late time, was prowling the corridors. Normally, things were quiet now, but not on this occasion, for he could hear some eerie music coming from a nearby room.

“What are you two still doing up?” he asked, as he looked into the room, and saw a cyborg and a green owl sitting there, their eyes glued to a large screen.

The green owl’s head turned 180 degrees to look at the newcomer. “Well, Vic’s still wide awake, having spent most of the day asleep while we were fighting the Fearsome Five,” he explained. “As for me... well, as you can see, I’m kind of a night owl.”

Vic glanced, away from the screen, towards the pale teenager standing in the doorway. “Couldn’t you sleep, either?”

“He’s a creature of the night,” explained the owl, before Dagon had time to reply.

“So, what’s this you’re watching?” asked Dagon, looking at the picture on the screen. “It doesn’t look like the normal multiple news channels that Nightwing usually leaves it locked on.”

“You can thank Vic for that,” explained the green owl. “He overrode the lock. We’re watching a-”

As the owl talked, Cyborg, with a thought, dimmed the lights and the eerie music started to increase in volume.

“I can take a hint,” said Gar, transforming back into his human self. “Now, quiet, Dagon! We’re trying to watch a movie here.”

Dagon sat down on one of the many chairs littered around the room, and watched the screen as a group of teenagers entered an abandoned mansion. “Just hope it’s not one of those anti-vampire propaganda flicks,” he said, just before the film’s volume went up another notch.

“Wow, that looks scary,” said Adam Pine, poking his head around the door.

Gar, instantly turning to an owl, looked round at the hero that they knew as Woodchucker. “Couldn’t you sleep, either?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I kept thinking about Flamebird and Arrowette and Plastique.”

“You mean Carrie and Delia and Sam,” said Dagon.

“But how do we even know they’re their real names?” he asked, entering the room. “After all the lies they’ve told us.”

“They’re their real names,” said the former Queen of Clubs, suddenly appearing at the doorway. “Although they should have made up new ones. Who knows what effect your knowledge of that might have on the future?”

“So, what’s your name?” asked Adam.

“Well, I can’t tell you that,” she said, looking straight at him. “Trust me, the less you know about your future, the better. Anyway, just to aid conversation, you can call me Regina. That’s what I’m letting Dad call me.”

“Anybody actually watching this movie?” asked Vic grumpily, his metallic hand dipping into a bag of popcorn.

“Yeah, I am,” said the green owl. “I love to stay up late. In fact you could say I’m bit of a night -”

Gar’s sentence was cut off as the volume increased once more.

“I can’t sleep,” said Arrowette, walking into the room with other Titans and sitting herself down by a multi-colored chair.

“Insomnia?” asked Gar, transforming himself once again into an owl.

“How many times do you intend to do that corny night owl joke?” asked Vic wearily.

“Until someone laughs,” replied Gar, transforming back to his normal self. “Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes, insomnia. Personally, I think it’s great. It’s something you never get tired of.”

Arrowette winced. “No, it’s not insomnia. It’s worrying about Carrie that’s keeping me awake. Has anybody heard from her?”

Arrowette looked at the blank faces around her. “Guess not... So, what’s this?” she asked, looking at the screen.

“A bunch of teenagers are trapped in this big old dark building,” explained Vic. “Something’s destroying them one by one.”

Suddenly there was a loud clap of thunder outside, and the room plunged into total darkness.

“Please tell me that’s the surround sound,” said Gar, “and, Vic, can you put the power back on?”

“Just having a little fun,” said Vic, as the room brightened and the screen burst back into life, “but the thunder wasn’t me.”

At which point, the Titan known as Element walked into the room.

“Having troubling sleeping?” asked the green owl that Gar had just turned into.

“I couldn’t sleep for the screams,” said Element.

“What screams?” asked Arrowette.

“You won’t be able to hear them,” explained Element, sitting himself down in a lotus position.

“Whose screams?” asked Woodchucker.

“The Universe’s.”

Just as he’d finished his sentence, there was another loud clap of thunder outside.

“Ooh, this is spooky,” deadpanned Gar. “Where are the grown-ups when we need them?”

“Well, my Dad was downstairs on the computer, researching what he’d missed during his year away, and hopefully coming up with a better name than Speedy,” said the newly-christened Regina. “He told me that Dick’s taken Kory away to recuperate, while Kid Flash is with Raven, and Donna’s resting after her fight with Dick.”

“He’s lucky she didn’t kill him,” came Plastique’s voice.

“Huh, who’s that?” asked Vic, wondering where the new voice was coming from.

“That’s Plastique,” explained Arrowette. “You probably didn’t notice him. He’s here,” she said, pointing at the garish-looking chair beside her. “Anyway, he’s Donna’s number one fan.”

“Yeah, and that Nightwing’s a jerk,” continued Plastique, morphing into his standard appearance.. “First, he accused us of being liars.”

“Well, you were,” said Woodchucker, hoping Plastique couldn’t see him in the dark.

“A technicality. Anyway, then he doesn’t even apologize to Donna after trying to kill her.”

“I said the Universe was screaming,” said Element calmly. “There’s evil outside.”

“You were being serious?” said Plastique.

Element nodded.

“I’ll go and check it out,” said Plastique, expanding his chest. “Lousy movie anyway. Those teenagers are stupid, just going off to investigate things on their own.”

“You think he’ll be okay?” asked Vic, as Plastique left the room.

“Yeah, he’ll be fine,” replied Arrowette. “He’s Plastique.” And with that, she got back to watching the movie.

A few minutes later, that movie was interrupted by loud screams coming from outside.

“Plastique,” gasped Arrowette, racing toward the door.

Cyborg, on the other hand, was punching at the wall. “This room needs a window.”

Then, as the wall gave way, the Titans saw four large eyes outside, illuminated by lightning, looking back in at them.

Element backed away across the floor, fear, for once, showing on his face.

“Trigon,” gasped Regina.

“Who?” asked Adam.

“Trigon the Terrible. The Dark God. He came to destroy the Universe, but, unless some idiot’s been punching holes in the dimensional barrier, he’s not due here yet. Oh, wait, I get it.” She walked over to the window laughing, while the others looked at her like she was crazy. “Come on, Plastique, the joke’s over. You really had me going there.”

Gar breathed a sigh of relief. “Yeah, as if I was going to be scared by some dark god of trigonometry.”

“I am Trigon,” came the booming voice from outside, his very words sending the remaining fragments of the wall spiraling towards the Titans.

While Element sat huddled in a corner, his power stopped the slabs of wall in mid-air, giving the others the time to rush out.

“Trigon The Terrible,” the monster outside bellowed, as beams shot from his eyes towards Element.

Element closed his eyes and then he suddenly felt a breeze and opened them. He was outside with the others. Kid Flash looked down at him and winked. “Don’t worry. Everything’s okay,” he said, trying to convince himself as much as Element.

Suddenly, her attention was drawn to Woodchucker returning with a large log in his hand.

“What harm will that do?” asked Dagon.

“Never heard of David and Goliath?” asked Woodchucker as he flung the log with all of his might. His aim was straight and true and it collided with Trigon’s temple.

Suddenly, everything fell silent as Trigon came to a halt. Then he lifted his hand to his head, feeling the spot where the log had just hit, and laughed a laugh that drowned out the thunder.

“He’s not got any weak points,” explained Kid Flash suddenly appearing in front of Woodchucker. “I checked. Still, nice try, kid.”

Roy leaned over and pulled a familiar-looking arrow from Arrowette’s quiver.

“Napalm arrow,” said Arrowette. “Dad swears by them in situations like this.”

“Your dad? You mean you’re -” began Roy.

“We haven’t got time for delays, Sherlock,” said Regina, turning Roy’s head away from Arrowette towards Trigon. “Now, if you’ve got a master plan, let us in on it.”

“Yeah, spill the beans, Speedy.”

“Well, I’m betting there’s one weak spot Wally wouldn’t have checked,” he said, aiming his arrow below Trigon’s belt.

“Goodness! Gracious!” exclaimed Arrowette, and then her final sentence was drowned out by the loud roar of Trigon.

“Enough of this,” he screamed, his hand smothering the flames below. “This Universe is mine and it will be destroyed.”

“But what about me, Master?” said Psimon, running towards him.

Trigon just ignored Psimon, while the other Titans just attacked en masse.

Psimon suddenly realized that everybody was now ignoring him. Even Raven’s attention was now focused solely on Trigon.

“Somebody pay me attention!” Psimon ordered, and suddenly felt Cyborg’s metallic fist smashing into his face.

“Well, you did insist,” said Cyborg, looking at Psimon’s inert body, and then turned his attention back to the attack on Trigon.

“Where have they gone?” asked Gar Logan, who’d only just come round.

“Wherever it was, they took my hand,” said Cyborg, as he looked at the stump of his extended arm that the hole in the sky had closed around.

“Looks like there’s just the four of us left here,” said Wonder Girl, gathering together the gossamer-thin colored cobwebs from the ground.

“Four of us?” asked Gar, doing a quick mental count.

She nodded, and pointed at the cobwebs in her hand. “Always assuming we can put Plastique back together after what Trigon did to him.”
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Meanwhile, in a strange land, the Titans still had far more questions than answers.

“So, can we get any help here?” asked Roy. “Surely some heroes survived.”

“No, none,” said Regina.

“But you must have your own versions,” said Woodchucker. “A Flash? A Green Lantern? A Woodchucker?”

Arrowette laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Those sorts of heroes don’t come along often. It’s like catching lightning in a bottle. The age of heroes is gone. We’re just living in their shadows.”

“So, what happened to the heroes?” asked Raven.

“Does it matter?” asked Roy, attempting to keep the truth from his friend, who he really wanted to protect, despite his still having a strong subconscious urge to kill her.

“No,” said Raven, seeing the answer clearly in the way Arrowette and Regina were looking at her. “I guess it doesn’t matter...”

“What matters now is stopping Trigon,” interrupted Wally. “Anyone know where he’s heading?”

“Look in the sky,” said Regina, pointing to where the black clouds congregated.

“Where’s that?” asked Woodchucker.

“You’d know it as Titans Tower.”

Raven’s teleportation made Element feel even more nauseous than the rest of this world was making him feel. Falling to the ground, he lifted his head, and saw, through the gloom, a large, dark, R shaped tower, smoke coming from its many chimneys and screams coming from its many inhabitants.

Arrowette helped him to his feet, and he noticed that she was trembling as she told him where they were:

“Welcome to the Raven’s Lair.”